Saturday, June 2, 2018

A Summer Morning


This morning, I was out watering my chickens. As I stood next to the water. Listening to the water burble and chuckle while the chickens drank that lovely cool water. I noticed in the background, the quiet hum of bees. As I looked into the blossoms of this Chinese Lantern tree, it was full of bees. As I watched them, I saw the tiniest bee I have ever seen in my life. It was maybe the size of the end of a pin. It was blue green and sparkled like a mix between amethyst  and emerald. We will begin June with perfect weather. We will touch 100-105 on Sunday and Monday then it will return to 90s. Its time for all of those wonderful things I love about living in California.


 We need those warm days so we can use this again. I don't know why I complain about the weather when I have so many nice things around me to keep me nice and cool.

I thought since I was walking around with my camera, it was time to give you a look at all that I see when I am here walking around looking at things.


This Hydrangea blossom is as high as my head. I was taking pictures this reminded me of my grandmother. One of my earliest memories is her taking care of her huge hydrangea bushes. She was still living in her house in town so I couldn't have been more than two. She let me drive nails all around her plants with a hammer. I was so proud of myself getting to do an important job like that while she carefully explained to me how the nails would help the flowers turn blue. All of the things that come to my mind as I walk around with my camera.


The Mullein is going to town. I am always so glad when I see it growing and I am reminded of how important it is to have medicinal herbs growing around your house. To me this was one of the most important ones with small children. When they would get colds, we would brew mullein and make a tea and give it to the kids with honey. It always broke up the cough. Its too warm now but I still have nettles growing in shady places and that is the best plant for Nettle tea when you are low on iron.


 I wanted to share with you the new pomegranates. They are so pretty in among the new leaves. I don't know if they still do this today, but when I was in grade school they would line us all up in lines and the principal would go up and down the lines looking at our hands to see if they were clean and would use a tongue depressor to look at kids heads for lice. I hated that so much because then they would make a big deal of taking kids with dirty hands and lice out of line and every single kid knew who those kids were. My grandmother had this huge pomegranate tree, and every time I would take one and break it open with rock I would get my hands stained. The next day at school would be that check day. I still can't stand to get juice on my hands.  I also still shudder thinking about how the kids who were called out of line would be ostracized until the next time we had to stand in line for that check.


 This year, the shade in the front yard is so deep. The grass is so green that I find myself setting on the porch, watching it. I know I have taken this picture so many times but I find I am still drawn by it.
Maybe because its the first year, there will be no little legs in among its branches. I find that the echos of voices and laughter seem to come at me every time I walk around now. The ghosts who live among us. Children of the past.


I cheated today and left Mr. Nosy chicken scratch so I could get his picture. He was scolding me when he thought I was going to pick his berries. I put some scratch out and then sat in my chair and waited. It didn't take too long. Mrs. Blue Jay was much more cautious. She stayed in among the branches and watched and waited for me to leave.

The outside living room
My berries not the blue jays.
How it looks when I am sitting in my outside living room.
I was trying to get a picture of the little ants stealing sugar from this sunflower. They were really tiny and very busy. So many memories today. The first time I saw sunflowers growing by the side of the road, when our road out front was just a country road with very few cars as well as asphalt, mostly dirt road. Sunflowers would grow in the summer. I wanted to pick a bouquet for my Mom. I wasn't supposed to go past my Great Grandmother's house, but I really wanted those flowers. So when the coast was clear, I ran as fast as I could to the clump of sunflowers. What I learned that day was, first of all you don't just pick sunflowers, you need something to cut them with as they are so tough, and the second thing I learned is they are filled with those tiny ants gathering sugar. My hands were full of ants. I dropped those flowers like they were hot potatoes and ran back home brushing off the ants. I never did pick them again. Now when I bring them in the house, I always soak them in a little bit of Dawn dish washing soap and warm water, and it works like a charm. I use my Black Eyed Susan's more for flower arranging, because the sunflowers are for the finches, the parrots and the bees.

 I will stop for now. My fitbit reminded me I have been sitting for too long. Once I jump up and go take 250 steps for the hour, my mind starts moving on to someplace else. Like real life and taking Ron to get tires on his car.
Thank you for stopping by today. My kids keep asking for memories so I am trying to do what they ask. For a little while.
I hope your day is as pretty as ours is today. With the sounds of the wind-chimes and the wind gently stirring the leaves and the smell of toasty warm grass and the birds singing in the distance.
~Kim~

“A person never forgets the landscape of their childhood'.”
― Kate Morton, The Lake House

Friday, June 1, 2018

Summer Projects and Happy June!


I was outside still trying to get better taking pictures with my new camera. I still can't get the look I want, but I will keep at it. I just love when the apricots start to get ripe, sunshine growing on a tree. Its a race between me and the birds. We have a front tree that really has the best apricots. It is really early apricots, but this year its late so both trees are ripe at the same time. We have had a much cooler spring this year. (Yay)

I am going to give you a book review today. I don't do many book review. Just because everyone has such different kinds of reading styles and likes and dislikes. I also don't really like modern writers. Unless I am in some kind of guns and espionage and fighting against the government kind of mood. So I will read Grisham or Baldacci. Which I don't tell you about. I also read cozy mysteries. Though I haven't read anything like that in awhile. I always have some kind or 10 books I am reading around here. I am doing three Bible Studies for summer too. Anyway, my book report is on The Lake House by Kate Morton.  A blog friend starting reading The Forgotten Garden by the same author and told me it was a really good book. Since we both have the same taste in books, I went to the library. It was good too.

But nothing like The Lake House. I can normally figure out endings and mysteries. This one was unique. I don't want to ruin it, but as books go, this was the best of the best. Ron did say after I finished it last night, " Oh good, now I can have my wife back." I guess I have been in really deep. I have one more library book left by Kate Morton called The Secret Keeper. I might wait just so I can think about something else. I did get up really early this morning and reread the last part of the book because I loved it so much. I don't do that either normally. I will buy this book. Which is about the highest praise I can give it because I am trying not to buy books. Though I just bought the reissued
Elisabth Goudge series The Elliot Family Trilogy, The Bird in the Tree, Pilgrim Inn, The Heart of the Family. Our library must have did a purge and these aren't in the system anymore. Sad how all of these wonderful authors are going by the wayside, for writers that are just one notch from Cat in the Hat. (Sorry for the commentary, The Lake House isn't like that and I had to look up words in the dictionary.)

I drew out my newest rug this week, for a summer project. I will dye some wool today. Its always a wonderful day when I get to dye wool.

This pattern is from Winter Cottage, Terri Leaner.

One of the sweet goodies she sent in the package was a rug label.

I am so bad at labeling my rugs so I thought this was the nicest thing to send with the pattern.
She has a whole series of rugs called Sunday Rugs and I might like to do them.

When I was working on the quilt I made for my granddaughter, I needed a machine that could do zig zag. My little workhorse, my Singer Featherweight, doesn't do stitches like that. I happen to have my Grandmother's Singer. Its a very nice machine, but I haven't ever used it very much preferring my Featherweight. I got out her machine and it does such lovely zigzag. I now have a machine to zigzag the edges on my rugs. I really like that machine, and as I was sewing, I thought, maybe I need to think about doing some more sewing. So we will see how much more my ole brain wants to learn.

Can you see that pretty bloom on that pumpkin vine? I didn't plant any this year, but this one came up on its own, so I think I will keep it and see how it grows.

Well the dryer buzzed so its time to go get the day going. Oh by the way, since Blogger changed something on the 25th, I am not getting your comments in my Gmail box. Does anyone know a fix for that? I thought it was my computer being new and all of that, but its on  bloggers end. I would appreciate it if anyone has any idea on that front.

Thank you so much for stopping by today, have a wonderful weekend,

~Kim~


“Boredom, as her mother had always told them, was a state to be pitied, the province of the witless.” 

“May your past be a pleasant memory, Your future filled with delight and mystery, Your now a glorious moment, That fills your life with deep contentment.” 
Kate Morton, The Lake House